Increased competition for admission to USA PhD programs?
We live in different times. There is some anecdotal evidence that this year admissions to leading graduate schools in the USA have become a lot more competitive, particularly for international applicants. Doug Natelson has discussed the issue, highlighting that it is important for unsuccessful applicants to know that these are exceptional times and their lack of success does not reflect on their ability and potential, but rather on structural issues.
I have a few questions for readers.
A. Is it your experience (whether as an applicant, recommender, or decider) that it is more competitive this year? Have you seen any articles about this?
B. If so, which of the following factors are particularly causing this crunch? (Doug mentions some of these factors.)
1. Fewer current Ph.D. students are graduating because of delays or lack of job opportunities due to the pandemic. This leaves less money for new students.
2. Universities are nervous about making offers to international students because of pandemic-related travel restrictions and uncertainty. There is a preference for domestic students.
3. Some universities are undergoing budget cuts or are very uncertain about their financial stability. This has flowed on to reduced admissions.
4. There are more applicants because of limited alternative job opportunities.
5. Other factors?
It will help all concerned if we can have a more accurate picture of what is going on. I raise the issue because I was surprised and disappointed that I encouraged a student to apply and wrote a glowing reference (neither of which I do very often) but he did not succeed.
Please do share what you do know.
This may be North America in general, not just the USA, speaking from a Canadian perspective. We've had 20% more applicants than our previous record high this year, with more very strong applicants than I can ever remember seeing. We've admitted more students than usual, but there are a number of very good students who didn't end up getting offers.
ReplyDeleteFrom my department, 1. doesn't seem to be an issue, we've had a lot of Ph.Ds graduating in the past year, 2. also isn't an issue for our department, but we have seen more domestic students applying than in previous years. 3. also isn't an issue.
I do wonder about 4. as a possibility due to less other opportunities, and I think there is perhaps some pent up demand as we saw 10% less applications than usual last year (although most of our admissions was complete before the main effects of the pandemic became evident).
Thanks Malcom. That is helpful. It is wonderful for your department that you got so many good applicants.
ReplyDeleteEurope, many have got scholarships for doctoral programs this year. Your student must try there. Germany , Netherlands . I have heard not sure, that many universities in Netherlands conduct interviews online with the prospective PhD student before final verdict. One feels this is a good approach. Both the above countries have English as the medium of instruction.
ReplyDeleteI was an applicant this cycle. Although I was lucky enough to get a spot in one of my top choice programs, I have seen many of my peers (who all had amazing application profiles, better than my own) receive rejections all across the board. Of course, I don't know the full picture of their applications -- a professor saying that they will write them a "strong" letter can vary so widely in actual strength. Not to mention all the internal politics that play large factors, as Natelson mentions. But, I have no doubt that were they to have applied a few years ago, they would have received acceptances to some of the schools they were rejected from. Your surprise and disappointment with your own student is certainly not uncommon.
ReplyDeleteTo address your fourth point, I have absolutely seen this firsthand. With every year, there is always a "camp" of applicants who apply because graduate school seems like the next "correct" step to take, rather than a genuine desire to apply.
(I think this stems from a general departmental push for graduate school. Professors often use language such as "when you're in graduate school, you will see...", and my undergrad counselor sends out much more emails about PhD programs rather than other job opportunities. But this is a whole other topic to discuss...)
But, this camp has gotten larger this past application cycle. My undergrad counselor told me that there are so many more students in our department who had made the decision to apply just a few months before the December/January deadlines. While the limited job opportunities have certainly played a factor to higher application numbers, I believe there are two much more prominent factors, from an applicant's point of view:
1) The exclusion of the physics GRE and regular GRE. Applicants who impulsively decide to apply to graduate school no longer face the hurdle of frantically searching for available test appointments; not to mention the time investment of studying. It is entirely possible to make the decision to apply in November, and get an application together in time for December.
(I should also mention the additional costs of taking the pGRE/GREs, sending out scores, and having the financial stability to be able to study for them. These barriers of entry that previously prevented low-income applicants are also no longer present.)
2) The isolation at home caused by COVID. In previous years, people who were unsure about applying to graduate school vs. exploring other career options had all of the resources of their universities. They could visit the Career Fair and talk to different companies. They could walk into a counselor's office and have an in-person conversation about their futures. They could talk to their peers and alumni at the SPS meeting. But now, what options do they have? Surfing the web for job postings? Emailing counselors who are already burdened by their suddenly increased workloads? In the best case, scheduling yet another Zoom meeting to try to have real-time conversations? Under these circumstances, applying to graduate school seems like such an attractive option. The isolation takes the problem of limited job opportunities and multiplies it into an even bigger problem.
Finally, one other factor: the deferrals of admitted applications from the previous year. I'm not sure how many universities offered this opportunity, but I know at least a decent amount allowed their newly admitted students from the 2019-2020 cycle to defer their acceptance by a year. For example, I know that Cornell and UCLA allowed students to defer, and this lowered the number of spots they would've normally given out.
All in all, it is insane how many different factors combined and exponentiated together to give us this difficult application season. I hope my insight helped, and I am happy to discuss further if needed.
I was an applicant this year and unfortunately couldn't convert any of my applications into admission offers. This year seems to have been a tough year due to many reasons that have already been mentioned this year. Also, I find that many people are in same boat right now, thinking about whether or not to give grad school another shot. I've come across some discussions on this in many academic blogs, for example see xykademiqz'post(https://xykademiqz.com/2021/05/18/reader-question-apply-to-grad-school-again/)
ReplyDeleteHaving been in the grad school system in the US for year, I suspect this year could have been relatively tough for students opting to do theory. While theory research groups haven't had as many problems with research work or graduation rates when compared to experimental groups, there has always been systemic funding issues for theory groups. Usually, I've found that many theory students end up being TAs for a good part of their grad school years, partly because of the funding situation for most PIs doing theory. As the overall financial situation seems to be flailing, many departments are facing some budget cuts and I believe this could have put some pressure on recruitment this year.